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Last year, ASTC members served millions of students through school outreach programs. That work continued this morning at the ASTC Annual Conference with an off-site session, Outreach Live. Presenters from around the region brought their science centers’ best outreach programs to the Friends Select School in Philadelphia for both students and museum colleagues. A roundtable discussion followed to review and evaluate the programs.

Jonah Cohen, one of the session organizers, described the mutual benefits of the program, which has been part of the conference line-up for over a decade: “Participants get the chance to see the full program that other centers do, in front of school children, the program’s intended audience. For the presenters, it’s a singular opportunity to get feedback from a huge variety of their peers. Furthermore, the programming is provided free to a local school, usually chosen because it’s in a underserved district, so the kids and teachers benefit, too.”

This year’s programming included two assemblies (The Human Body by the Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, and Weather: Wind, Water, & Temperature by the Museum of Science, Boston) and two hands-on classes (Slime Time by the Maryland Science Center, Baltimore, and Moveable Museum in a mobile paleontology lab from the American Museum of Natural History, New York City).

About the image: With help from Maryland Science Center outreach educators, second graders at the Friends Select School learn about polymers by experimenting with slime. Photo by Christine Ruffo